WOOF WOOF Hey guys it's me Marcus aka the Maddogg and thank you for watching this video so last
time I did it where to start on DC Comics and I'm asking you guys for some suggestions of what you'd
like to see and one thing that got recommended quite a few times is for me to do a where to start
on none other than the x-men no it's impossible and today's day nature to not know who the x-men
are but you might not have ever read any of the comics and as well you'll find that proper
diehard x-men fans will only ever recommend you the stories there are merely great for new readers
if you've not got much knowledge to the 60 or so years of history that have gone into this
team you might not actually know where exactly you can stop but don't worry I've got quite a
few tiles here and the will hopefully be at least one that will help you get into the Marvel side of
the mutant universe but just before I get into the list I do just have to point out that this
isn't a list of the greatest x-men stories of all time I'm doing the ones that are the best for the
new readers so it's got to find a way to introduce you into the characters you can't be too laced in
continuity and more than anything it's just got to be an enjoyable story so let's just get into the
list these having their water but the first one that I wanted to point out was x-men grand design
this only recently started getting released and I mean within the last couple of years but it's
written and illustrated by Ed Pitts core and it gives you quite an interesting look at the
entire continuity so if anything this is better for sort of almost like a previously on the x-men
so there's been three stories so far there was the first one that was just called x-men grand
design there was a second coming and there's a third one called extinction I've only read the
first one and I just thought it was quite a neat clean take on the x-men you get introduced to
the main players you get briefed on some of the storylines it's also brought to a contemporary
standard so if you don't really want to go back and read like the original Stan Lee's stories or
maybe some of the Chris Claremont stories this would be the best gateway for you and I mention
this one first because I think once you've read x-men grand design you've got a good foundation to
read other x-men stories each many story has only got two issues it's come out in quiet oversized
paperbacks and there's going to be a release of an oversized hardcover with a three stories so far
which of course I'm gonna have to buy because I've got absolutely no well power we have to mention
this one first because it is the Beth gateway into the x-men the second pick for new readers is the
astonishing x-men this is a phenomenal story from Joss Whedon because of what you think of
him as a result in Justice League film which is apparently all his fault even though most of the
with done by Zack Snyder astonishing x-men is my favorite x-men story so I had to recommend each
second because he is just the quintessential x-men but 24 so issues that Joss Whedon and John Cassidy
did together is a complete x-men story beginning to end so you do need to know a little bit about
Professor Xavier Wolverine Cyclops Emma Frost and a few other characters but for me I think this is
really great because it's got my main man Colossus and Colossus is my favorite member the x-men and
he's just given a really good spotlight with an astonishing the Omnibus recently got reprinted
and although I don't really recommend buying an omnibus as your first time getting exposed to
a story it is a great story that I think you can confidently buy and have the entire story then in
one hardcover well the reason why I recommended this is because I think he opens a lot of doors
for you x-men wise so I think it really gets to demonstrate how Cyclops is as a leader you
get to see our wall free and interacts with the team you get to see the Hellfire Club which if
you haven't really seen anything other than the x-men movies you might not even know who they are
there's a little bit of backstory and flashback which crossed over to the uncanny x-men by Chris
Claremont but more than way in the story down I think it's actually a good gateway point if it is
that you enjoy your Standish in x-men and want to read more x-men as a result of that but well what
you really did is have perfect oh boy you also boiled down the characters to a minor team so
there's not like thousands of x-men like you can feel like some time you don't need to remember all
the minor characters there's only melee that six or so main members of the x-men that you need to
keep following them because it eats a tighter team you actually get to follow them a bit deeper so
for me personally and yet might turn you off for the rest of the video there is nothing better than
astonishment x-men when it comes to your gateway into it and if you are enjoying this video or if
you're leaving because you've already had two great suggestions please just remember to leave
a like and if you haven't done so already please just click that subscribe button and click the
notification about what my third pick is going to be x-men mutant Genesis this was the best-selling
x-men comic of all time and I think issue one was actually the best single felling issue of all
time but it's written by the granddaddy of x-men Chris Claremont and he's also got one of the best
artists of all time in my opinion with Jim Lee it was a way of refreshing the x-men for the 90s and
it really just went along with a lot Steve you can meet the 7 main issues but they did actually
do quite a long run together that's getting reprinted in the Omnibus format and of course
I'm not missing a second chance to pick that off but I think this did a great job of actually
exposing you to some of x-men members II don't normally ever see so you do get to see Archangel
you introduce to Rogan psylocke but you're also more than anything just get Pete Magneto I love
magneto is following me favorite villain of all time and he was just great in this you just have
to look at the art to see how powerful they've made magneto in this and if you don't really
want to spend any money only Amazon's actually got mutant Genesis the entire seven issues of
it for free on Kindle unlimited obviously you can go with the original coloring or you can go
with the new column in that they did recently but whichever color when you go for think you're gonna
have a great time with this story now my fourth pick and this is where people start getting their
pitchforks out I've got the v33 issues of ultimate x-men the other reason why this is recommended on
my list is because this was my first x-men story I absolutely loved the Ultimate Marvel Universe when
I was growing up this was like the Marvel Universe for me because the Ultimate Universe didn't bother
with any of the continuity that weighed down the Marvel Universe for years already so if
you're a new reading you've never had any kind of exposure to the x-men this would be a great way of
just getting in there we didn't some stories and learning about those characters with the
Ultimate Universe yeah you do have to take it with a pinch of salt that we did try and like modernize
some things that some wigs and some deadens but you will get introduced to the world of
mutants you'll learn some of the storylines that have gone on before and you'll get introduced to
these characters as well and not just that I think the Ultimate Universe gets a pretty bad rap when
actually some of the stories are quite enjoyable I'm not gonna say that all of ultimate x-men was
good for the mark the law portion in particular was a stellar run and what I was used to do with
the Ultimate Universe I would read the ultimate version of a story face so say for example we've
got like ultimate death of Gwen Stacy and then once I realized that I enjoyed that I would go
back and read the actual Marvel 6-1-6 universe version of it so for as much stickers we give
the Ultimate Universe and we give ultimate x-men it is a great way to get you into the universe and
then help you branch into the main x-men world my fifth pick is gonna be x-men face class and no I
don't mean the film because obviously this is more about comics and stuff like that rather than the
films but there was actually series called x-men face class which in the early 2000s I believe it
was they actually went back and redid the origins of the original x-men so there's not gonna be any
Wolverine here unfortunately it's not gonna be any Colossus but you get like the five main members of
the x-men so you see beast without his food you see Cyclops growing up you've got Jean Grey and
I can't really remember the others off the top of my head but if you're wanting that or traditional
x-men story I think x-men first class would be the best one for you this had really crisp clean
heart that does actually feel like it was taken from us always sexy style and just modernized a
little bit it stays true to the characters for our and it does tell and engage in x-men story
even if it's something that's quite familiar so as well this could be good if you're wanting a
refresh on the x-men maybe you do know quite a bit or maybe you've watched a lot other films or the
cartoons before and you're just wondering how you can get into the comics the perfect bridge for you
would be x-men first class now my second pick and like I said these are in no particular order I've
got x-men Age of Apocalypse now on the surface it sounds like this would be a difficult one for new
readers but I've read Age of Apocalypse we're not quite new to the x-men and the reason why
I recommend it is the same reason why I recommend injustice to people trying to get into DC Comics
and it's because it's an alternate universe take on the x-men so wills being completely
flipped on its side you've got people who are normally enemies working with friends
and vice-versa you've got Wolverine without a hand you've got magneto leading the x-men and
then you've got this film that's been introduced at the same time who's called apocalypse if you
watch the x-men apocalypse film you know nothing about this character just Jeff he's so powerful
and intimidating and he's a massive threat for the entire universe and although it is quite wordy and
the art hasn't really aged well I do think this is quite a good segue if maybe you were reading x-men
at that time and you haven't read any comics since and you want to find a way to get back
into it with a familiar yet different cast and a great villain in a story that spans for about 50
or so issues I think this would be perfect if you want one of those x-men events to get into
and from here if you enjoyed this check out other x-men events now that you've got a foundation of
those characters but I'm going to get into some of them a little bit later so I'm not going to
say any more here now the next one on my list is Wolverine in the x-men shorts this technically
counts because I'm your shelf I put this with Wolverine Boyd's got x-men in the tire but for
the sake of this video I'm gonna include ease know in particular if you're a major Wolverine
fun if you really like Hugh Jackman it might be the case if that's what you really want to see
from an x-men story and sometimes understandably Wolverine can often be a secondary character but
with Wolverine and the x-men you're going to get a story that really focuses in on him as a character
whilst also seeing how their x-men universe works there may be some continuity that you need to know
like in particular in regards to why Wolverines got an active role button that I think if you
know a lot about Wolverine as a character this is going to be the best gateway for you because
having to miss out central carry te sort of weeks as a proxy to introduce you into the best of this
universe so although there's some more obscure characters that you're going to learn about and
it might not be the quintessential x-men you know he hasn't really got a Cyclops or anything like
that included it's still gonna give you at least enough of a foundation and give you a great story
written by Jason Aaron to help you get into this universe without much issue so yeah this one's
mainly on the list for the Wolverine fans who want to branch out into x-men now my next pick and this
is one that I think a lot of people might disagree with me on but I've got x-men schisms so yeah on
the surface it feels like this is the equivalent of recommending civil war to somebody who's never
met a Marvel comic or movie teams is the same as recommending Captain America Civil War to
somebody who's never watched MCU felt but for me I always feel like stories where a team actually
breaks up are actually good entry points into a series because from there you're gonna be given
a new status quo in x-men schism is mainly about a clash between Wolverine and Cyclops and actually
Wolverine and the x-men which I mentioned before is kind of like the sequel to this but for me if
this is one of the first x-men stories that you read I think you're gonna learn a lot about the
dynamic between the different characters within the x-men universe because you do get to see the
build up and why they end up fighting FMA it's gonna leave a lot of doors open for you so you've
got Wolverine and the x-men it did branch off so that Cyclops actually had his version of the
x-men as well so although you may disagree with me on this one I do actually think x-men schism
is possibly one of the best events to get people into ax men now my next one is a bit temperamental
because it may actually not be on the left five years from now depending I'll this plans out
but I've got a Hickman's run of x-men I wouldn't advise you getting this in single issues because
it's quite confusing but these standard paperbacks that are coming out are doing a really good job of
making sure that they've got it in chronological order so volume normal actually have like issue
one of house of X issue one of powers of X and then volume 2 will have issue 2 of powers of X
an issue 2 of house of X so that would be the way that I'd recommend getting into this but
Jonathan Hickman is one of those great writers that has a way of actually managing to absorb
all the continuity but not ladybug is story down so although there may be some characters that you
don't actually know you might have to read a bit into I feel like for the majority of x-men stories
you'd be doing that anyway but with this you're going to be able to follow the story as it's
coming out and you're going to be able to engage in that active conversation within the x-men
community it also feels like Jonathan Hitman's building up to something big in a similar way to
what you did with Fantastic Four and Avengers and how that led into Secret Wars so you might want to
be on the ground level of this because it feels like for the last couple of years Marvel doesn't
really want a lot to do with the x-men but now putting such a big high-profile thing like hitman
on it it feels like Marvel understands that this is a team that they need to give attention to and
as well with Marvel realizing that they haven't really treated the x-men with any kind of respect
lately it does actually feel like they've got a storyline that's gonna help get more people any
because they alienated so many people before but for me this is definitely one to watch and I get
the feeling like a couple of years from now this is gonna be much bigger than it already is now now
I'm gonna cheat again with my next selection but I've got the individual characters like yeah it
makes sense because when I was doing the DC comics one I didn't just recommend you DC comics events I
recommended you individual stories about different characters and it's the same for the x-men cuz of
course you've got Wolverine and you've got so many stories related to him I'm probably eventually
gonna do a where to start on Wolverine but there's some great ones that will help you get into that
universe there you could also read uncanny x-force and learn about some of the characters you could
read some of the gambit storylines from the 90s as well there was a great rogue storyline that
was written by Brian Kavon who did like Y the last man saga and ex machina so from watching any of
the x-men movies or the cartoons or anything like that you found a character that you really really
liked it might be the case that you can just read one of their individual series and branch into
the universe that way but like I said the x-men universe is so diverse I could actually come back
and do individual where two stars four individual characters so make sure you subscribed and you can
see them when they eventually do them now I'm coming in to my last couple of picks and this
one didn't really get added to the list until quite recently well I've got the new x-men by
Grant Morrison on the surface I thought like this wasn't a great run for beginners but looking back
and having a flip through the Omnibus a recently brought and do actually think that it would be
great if you've got some kind of knowledge of the x-men to begin with because it did feel like Grant
Morrison was trying to go off into a different direction and I think there must be a couple of
people that have read Grant Morrison's books maybe some of these very go title and you enjoy them but
you've never had an x-men story before in that case it do feel like new x-men could be good for
you the only one with this is I'd recommend having some kind of x-men Wikipedia open next year whilst
you read in this because there's some characters he does like to go with the more obscure ones
that you might have never heard of but regardless considering this was nearly a fifty issue run I
think this would be great to give you one of them like long strand narratives from one writer about
one team my last major selection that I had to put in here somewhere is of course the uncanny
x-men by Chris Claremont but to me this is like that.you of comics that are never really read
and enjoyed however uncanny x-men is like the exception to that rule he introduced Wolverine
storm 9 crawlin Colossus and he incorporated it into the original x-men and just went with his
own story of course yeah there are individual storylines that you could get from this so you
could get Days of Future past you could get the dog Phoenix saga you could get God loves monk
Hills could technically get like full of the mutants inferno extinction agenda but for me
why don't you just start the beginning of this one and see how far you can get in sweet we're quite
lucky because Marvel actually our reprinting quite a lot of this run in the omnibus format
so for me if you really want to get into x-men there's no better place to stop than the star the
Stanley stuff hasn't really aged that well I've only read about two issues and it just wasn't
for me but uncanny x-men considering the fact that he is quite weirdly when you compare it to
like a modern day comic still has the staying power so that I have to recommend it to you in
this video I'll be doing a disservice to you for didn't this is the x-men one so I think at some
point it's important that you at least try this and you might even get away with trying this as
your first x-men book I think if you can get into the writing style you won't have too much
of an issue and you will get introduced to the characters at the time when they were actually
introduced and I've got a bonus suggestion for here at the end it isn't really a comic but of
course it's the 90s x-men the animated series we've all lived the theme song and we all know
that it's great but more than that the series was great it's currently all on Disney plus so
if you're like me and you're paid six-pound a month for Disney Plus and realize that there's
not much on it to begin with why not sit down and watch the x-men animated series I feel like
this series is one of those rare ones it's great for new start as Boris pected people who read the
comics this had the best adaption of the Dark Phoenix storyline so why not watch the animated
see which characters and storylines and feelings that you likes and then go from there because
let's be honest there's probably quite a few comic collectors and x-men fans that actually did start
getting into it that way so just because it came out in the 90s it doesn't mean that that's not a
viable strategy now so check out a few episodes if you're remotely interested in the x-men I can
guarantee that you're likely to enjoy this but those are all the ones that I've got and like I
said this is my personal s that I think will help people get into x-men but you might have some of
your own suggestions so leave them in the comment section below so that we can help everyone or
maybe just comment on what your first exposure to the x-men was I need to stop saying x-men because
I feel like it doesn't sound like a weird anymore but if you like this video please give it a thumbs
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